How Your Marital Status Affects Your Heart Health

That box you check on your tax return has more of an impact on your health than you might think.

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When it comes to your heart health, it's not just physical factors that make a difference — matters of the heart (metaphorically speaking) apparently play a big role. A new study of 3.5 million Americans has found that married people have a lower chance of developing cardiovascular disease than those who are single, divorced, or widowed.

The study was conducted from 2003 through 2008 at more than 20,000 cancer and other disease screening sites in all 50 states. The average age of the subjects was 64: two-thirds of them were female, and 80% were white. The married people had a 5% lower risk of heart disease compared to the singles. Widowed people had a 3% greater risk, and divorced people had a 5% greater risk. Married people under 50 had a 12% lower chance of heart disease than single people in that age range.

"Our survey results clearly show that when it comes to cardiovascular disease, marital status really does matter," lead author Dr. Carlos Alviar, a cardiology fellow at New York University's Lagone Medical Center, told the Associated Press. He said this was the largest study ever to look at the link between marriage and heart health.

You may ask why being married affects your health at all — especially since the marriage rate is at an all-time historic low, and, at least anecdotally, single people don't seem any less healthy or happy. Researchers could only speculate about the results. "It might be that if someone is married, they have a spouse who encourages them to take better care of themselves," said Dr. Jeffrey Berger, a preventive cardiologist at NYU Langone. But "we can't prove by any means cause and effect," he added.

The study also found that smoking, a major heart disease factor, was highest in divorced people and lowest among widowed ones. Those who were single and divorced were more likely to be obese, and widowed people suffered from the highest rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and inadequate exercise.

TELL US: Do you think being married has a positive effect on your health?